I just wanted to get everyone's opinion and help on deciding what percentage I should tint my car.
I have a 2012 328i sport line with black interior. The exterior is mineral grey.
Need help deciding between 20% or 35% all around! Taking all the advice I can get. Thanks :-)

I had 20% on my jet black E92 328 with black leather, it looked great. The only downside was the highway patrol in CA are super picky with tint on the front windows that dark and issued me numerous fix it tickets. If your state allows such a dark tint on the front windows I'd go for 20%. I have 30% all around on another car, and I feel that it is too light.

I had 20% on my jet black E92 328 with black leather, it looked great. The only downside was the highway patrol in CA are super picky with tint on the front windows that dark and issued me numerous fix it tickets. If your state allows such a dark tint on the front windows I'd go for 20%. I have 30% all around on another car, and I feel that it is too light.

I'm really leaning towards 20%. But with the black interior, how was the visibility at night? Also how "see through" we're the windows from the outside of the car ?

mine is white with beige interior. Here is a pic of it with 3M 35%. hope this helps.

Wow, that 35% looks really dark, more like 25%, but maybe that's because of the contract with the color of your car. Looks good regardless. I think in my state the front windows cant be darker than 35 or 40% and I was thinking that would be like having nothing (my previous car had 15% and was black).

The kicker is deciding on going darker on the back windows or keeping it the same all around now...

20% looks amazing, but is illegal. Get it if you want, but be prepared to be told to remove it. 30% is nice as well, but definitely not as striking as 20% (and, of course, it has less UV protective value) and won't get you as much attention from the powers that be. I did 30 on my front windows and 20 on the rear three windows and have had no issues.

FWIW, if you have a dark interior, your dark tint will look darker and garner you more unwanted attention than had you gone with 30 or 35. If you have a dark exterior, the lower degree of contrast between your dark paint and your darker window tint will emphasize the darkness of your tint. If you have black inside and black or very dark blue outside, you should definitely veer closer to what's legal (mainly for your wallet's sake) than toward what's not legal.

Regardless of what illegal tint value you select, it's far more likely to be noticed and measured if you get stopped for something else. If you do get stopped, turn on all your interior lights so you can be seen more easily; it may buy you just enough goodwill so that the cop doesn't concern himself with your tint. Whatever you choose, try to think of the situation from a cop's point of view.

They know that a large quantity of apprehensions for "significant" offenses result from otherwise routine traffic stops. So that means that a large quantity of the folks stopped for a traffic violation are, in the cops' minds, potentially hazardous to their well being, particularly since, unlike in the old days, there is one, not two, cop per cruiser. Anything you can do to reduce their initial tension level when approaching your vehicle will help you.

Not directly relevant, but this may help provide some perspective:
I wish I knew why they stopped doing the two cops per car thing. I presume it's because:

Splitting them up is a less expensive way to make it look like there are more cops on patrol. Voters likely prefer more police presence/visibility to more actual police force. So what you have is two eyes seeing less detail in a given space, but hundreds of citizens eyes seeing what appears to be more cops on the street. There aren't, there are just more cars; payroll costs far more than cars.

If a perpetrator is going to bring harm to the officer, he's able to make less of an impact on the overall force if only one cop is harmed, leaving the other, already in route and aware of what s/he's going to encounter.

(I find it hard to believe that the last thing a cop does before exiting his/her vehicle is inform someone that that's what s/he's doing. And that someone knows that if they don't hear back from the cop in 1.5 to 2 minutes -- if that -- that something has gone awry. Indeed, I suspect there's a whole timing protocol for when the first cop actually exists his/her cruiser and when support is notified, and in route and X minutes away from the scene and the time between communications.)

here's 15% on my old black 135i and 20% on my E92. interior on the 135i was black and on the e92 is Cream Beige which is even lighter than regular beige. I thought I wanted 20% as the 15% was too dark with the black interior but when I got the 20% on the beige I think now it's a tad to light sometimes. 35% will for sure be much lighter than 20%.

I had the same dilemma. my other car is a prius with 15% in the back and 50% up front. I have been pulled over with it before for going through a stop sign but got out with a warning. he never did mention about the tint(California is 70% which means you cant have any tint) but then it was a prius and he even asked me if i had any firearms in the car and answered the question for me "you don't look like it." talk about stereotyping(good thing he didnt ask if i owned apple products and ate only organic food LOL!) and i'm a member of calguns so sometimes i transport firearms albeit legally. i have seen people drive around with 20% or darker and they seem to be ok. if i do get pulled over later on for being stereotyped as a prick then i may just go lighter with ceramic.

Quote:

Originally Posted by tdizzle

Wow, that 35% looks really dark, more like 25%, but maybe that's because of the contract with the color of your car. Looks good regardless. I think in my state the front windows cant be darker than 35 or 40% and I was thinking that would be like having nothing (my previous car had 15% and was black).

The kicker is deciding on going darker on the back windows or keeping it the same all around now...

My car is Mineral Gray and I just had 35% Huper Optik installed today on all windows but the windshield. Looks good because the tint isn't black, it is more of a charcoal color that works well with the body color. Makes a huge difference in interior temperature (especially in Az).
Good luck with yours!

if it helps, the trim around the windows are also a factor. personally i have a base model no gloss shadowline trim for me so going too dark doesnt look appealing imo. like rexg, i have the same so 35 all around is good . if you have the sportline and the trim is shiny, then go as dark as you can. itll help bring out the bling on the car.

ps dont forget the rim color as well.. THAT right there should be the the biggest determining factor

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the only thing in this world that gives orders is balls. You got that? Balls.

I have 35% all around on my 2012 328i sedan no line. Exterior is Black Sapphire Metalic w/ all black interior and the black 20" 361 rims.Night visibility is fine and I feel it looks stealth w/o being overdone.

Not the best picture, but here's mine at 30% windows, 60% windshield. I have ceramic tint, which I'm told is a little lighter in color than normal. Black interior

That looks identical to my car from the outside. Nice choice

I went with 40% all around just to be safe. The shop recommended that I go 20% in the back, but I wanted it to look uniform. Maybe I'll snap a pic one day for show and tell. It looks pretty good to me, think I wished I could've gone 30% to be slightly darker, but I'm satisfied.